Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Snake Oil on Indiegogo (Read 5390 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Snake Oil on Indiegogo

I just found this campaign on Indiegogo for something called Geek Pulse. It's a DAC/headphone amp for your PC.. I died a little on the inside while reading that page.

Some choice selections:

"DACs are everywhere: in our phones, in our cable boxes, in our computers. Seriously. They're everywhere. The problem with the DACs that we find in all of our devices is simple: they're made to do the job with the least amount of effort and the lowest cost to build.
Geek Pulse is designed to differently. Instead of just barely getting the job done, it goes the extra mile to get the job done well. Very well. So well that there's no other DAC that can do what it does without having to pay three times the price."

$59 reward:
LightSpeed 1G USB Cable
MSRP: $99.  LightSpeed 1G is an affordable high-end USB cable that boasts more than twice the bandwidth of USB 2.0's Audio Specification standard. Due to its wide bandwidth, the USB controller inside your DAC isn't overburdened when jitter makes its way into the signal, making your DAC run optimally and signal noise-free.  $59 for 1 meter, $83 for 2m, or $101 for 3m.

$259 reward:
LightSpeed 2G USB Cable
MSRP: $449. This USB cable's bandwidth is four times USB 2.0's standard bandwidth of 480 MHz. Similar to LightSpeed 1G, the wide bandwidth of this cable ensures a low-jitter signal environment inside your DAC, giving you lifelike, bit-perfect music.  $259 for 1m, $365 for 2m, or $512 for 3m.

$589 reward:
Geek Pulse
MSRP: $999.  Geek Pulse is the world's most powerful 32/384 kHz + DSD128 desktop DAC and 3000 mW headphone amplifier.  When it comes to the Geek Pulse family, this is what others might call a base model.  We prefer to think of it as where awesome starts. 

"[My] very early impressions were that the extension (treble to bass) was good... and evenly presented. Instrument separation was obvious and vocals were rich. Soundstage was actually a bit wider than I expected, which was a nice bonus." - J Exby, Geek Pulse backer

"I got to listen to the Pulse x/f/i at the booth & it sounded amazing. Listening to all 6 minutes of the Eagles Hotel California in 24/192 through Alpha Dogs should convince anyone that the Pulse is worth the wait. The detail was amazing, along with the soundstage." - Jody, Geek Pulse backer

If you want to go despair at the ignorance search for it on Indiegogo. I don't want to link to it cause it would feel dirty.

Snake Oil on Indiegogo

Reply #1
Never let the facts get in the way of a good sales pitch

Snake Oil on Indiegogo

Reply #2
$1,202,499 USD RAISED OF $38,000 GOAL

I wish I was a snake oil salesman. D:

FLAC -> JDS Labs ODAC/O2 -> Sennheiser HD 650 (equalized)

Snake Oil on Indiegogo

Reply #3
I'm not up to speed regarding advertising laws, but there shirley must be countries where conscious lies are illegal?

I'm puzzled where all the DSD users (also here on HA) suddenly come from. It looks like "audiophiles" just adore using the worst tech available.
It's only audiophile if it's inconvenient.

Snake Oil on Indiegogo

Reply #4
Shirley, I initiated advertising actions a few times against audio scams like jplay, but unfortunately the industry-policed enforcers are happy with replacing outright lies with weasel words that convey the original misleading message. Truth in advertising is an entirely different proposition, altogether.


Snake Oil on Indiegogo

Reply #6
Meh, this is NOTHING for Indiegogo.

See your dumb USB cables, raise you a FREE ENERGY MACHINE.

There is little doubt in my mind that Indiegogo not only allows clear scams in their page, but even encourages them. See the Indiegogo stories on Pando.com, for instance, or look up the history of one of the most successful IG campaigns, the Healbe Gobe. Also look up Smarty Ring, or the Ritot watch, and countless others.

An excellent skeptical site analyzing these campaigns (or "scampaigns" which are most of the IG ones) is drop-kicker.com.

Snake Oil on Indiegogo

Reply #7
^sorry, QUANTUM free energy.

Snake Oil on Indiegogo

Reply #8
But those $ figures are for real? Or not necessarily? Maybe someone has made a helluvalot of fake pledges to themselves, speculating that big numbers spawn enough buzz around the 'net to be worth Indiegogo's 4 % charge? Or have I gotten the cardinality of the infinite human stupidity wrong here?

Snake Oil on Indiegogo

Reply #9
But those $ figures are for real? Or not necessarily? Maybe someone has made a helluvalot of fake pledges to themselves, speculating that big numbers spawn enough buzz around the 'net to be worth Indiegogo's 4 % charge? Or have I gotten the cardinality of the infinite human stupidity wrong here?


Lets say that those aren't pledges, but *Actual contributions*.

Who do the contributions go to and what fees get taken out of them?

Well, the contributions go to the guy organizing the fund raiser and if they comes from him, that money is in a closed loop, no? 

I don't know what Indiegogo's fee structure is like, but it is probably not that much worse than eBay's.

People bidding up the price of piece of rare used gear on eBay and then making it look like a valid closed auction by paying themselves is an old story.

Snake Oil on Indiegogo

Reply #10
One of the ways Indiegogo encouragees scammers which Kickstarter doesn't have is so-called "flexible funding", in which the campaigner doesn't have to raise a set amount before a set date. He just gets every contribution, no matter the "goal", but oddly enough there are a goal and a date. It doesn't make any sense to fund that way, unless it's just donations, but Indiegogo, again, is perfectly happy with people scamming others if they get their cut, even going so far as changing the wording on their fraud "protection" text to be just vague enough after a clear milliion-dollar scam is exposed by the media (not, you know, shutting it down).

In this particular instance it's an apparently new "forever funding" mode. I thought Indiegogo were shameless enough, but apparently not.

Snake Oil on Indiegogo

Reply #11
One of the ways Indiegogo encouragees scammers which Kickstarter doesn't have is so-called "flexible funding", in which the campaigner doesn't have to raise a set amount before a set date. He just gets every contribution, no matter the "goal", but oddly enough there are a goal and a date. It doesn't make any sense to fund that way, unless it's just donations, but Indiegogo, again, is perfectly happy with people scamming others if they get their cut, even going so far as changing the wording on their fraud "protection" text to be just vague enough after a clear milliion-dollar scam is exposed by the media (not, you know, shutting it down).

In this particular instance it's an apparently new "forever funding" mode. I thought Indiegogo were shameless enough, but apparently not.


Agreed. IndieGoGO should have "Caveat Emptor" cautions plastered all over it.

 

Snake Oil on Indiegogo

Reply #12
Well, the contributions go to the guy organizing the fund raiser and if they comes from him, that money is in a closed loop, no? 

I don't know what Indiegogo's fee structure is like, but it is probably not that much worse than eBay's.


AFAI can see, they take 4 percent. So the loop isn't completely closed.